The Miracles of Peanut Butter
by exxa
Summary: Riku and Eiri eat sandwiches, and Shuichi realizes his family's pretty damn wierd.


Ugh. Another useless one-word prompt. I am a horrible writer, but Riku is just so damn cute.

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Ever. No matter how many times I make human sacrifices to Murakami-sama; She's pretty damn stubborn.

"Um…"

Eiri turned his head, ready to snarl at the intrusion, but stopped and blinked when there was nobody in the doorway. He raised an eyebrow and focused his attention back on his computer. Where was he…?

"E-Excuse me?"

This time the sound was coupled with a tug on his shirt. He jumped and looked down to see a tousled blonde head and huge brown eyes staring at him. Oh, the kid. Eiri'd forgotten about him.

"What do you want?" Oops. That came out harsher than expected.

Riku blinked and let go, taking a few steps backward.

"Will you please help me make a sandwich?" he bit his lip and Eiri rolled his eyes. "I can't reach the bread and Mamma says I'm not allowed to use knives. Aunt Yoshiki used to let me, though."

A raised eyebrow. "I bet she did," he muttered, and pushed himself up and started out the door. "You coming?"

Riku hurriedly followed Eiri down the hall, keeping as close to the wall as he could. He didn't want to bump into Yuki-san and make him mad. Yuki was scary. But Mamma loved him, so he couldn't be all that bad, could he? Riku looked at the floor again and kept walking.

Eiri glanced down and frowned a bit. The kid was practically leaning on the wall. Eiri turned his attention back to walking, and glared ahead of him. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why the kid hated him so much. Eiri was kind-of somewhat personable to him, and didn't nag at him to do chores or drink all his milk. He even allowed the kid to have all the sweets Shuichi said he shouldn't have. Then again, Shuichi probably knew what he was talking about; he was the king of stunted growth. But then on the other hand there was the whole Kid-I-killed-your-father thing. Oh. Hello. That's why. If his father was murdered, he'd probably hate the killer too. Okay, on second thought, no, he wouldn't. But that was him.

"Um…Yuki-san?"

Eiri blinked and realized that he had been standing in the doorway of the kitchen for nearly a full minute, lost in his thoughts. He shook his head and turned to the task at hand.

"What kind of sandwich do you want?"

Riku just rummaged in the cupboard and held out the peanut butter.

"Jelly?"

The child shook his head.

Eiri took the jar out of the small hand and started assembling the 'ingredients'. Then an idea hit him. Ah ha! The kid will like it, and less work for him!

"You wanna make your own? I can help you."

Riku smiled shyly, and sat down at the small dining table, while Eiri set a plate with two pieces of bread, the jar, and one of the duller knives in front of him. A hand reached up and grasped the knife with a full fist, and started scooping the creamy peanut butter out.

"Don't put the knife in that deep; you'll make a mess."

Riku nodded and followed Eiri's directions.

A few minutes of muttered curses and whispered apologies later, two neat, albeit thick, peanut-butter sandwiches sat gleaming in the center of the table. Well, gleaming in Riku's eyes, anyway.

Eiri grabbed two paper towels and handed one to Riku before sitting down across in the seat across from him. This was gonna be awkward.

The youngest Kitazawa pushed one of the plates across the table, before staring at his plate like he had just realized something.

The middle Uesugi already had half the thing jammed down his throat, his left foot on the chair next to him, and he looked curiously at the child across from him. "Wahhsh ong?" he got out around the thick food in his mouth.

Riku pointed to the crust and frowned.

Oh. Duh. Eiri, for fear of spraying more crumbs, just pointed to the peanut butter-covered knife lying on the table.

"Oh!" And the knife was grabbed and the sandwich hacked at, until it was in the shape of a kind of deformed trout.

Eiri sighed, crumbs going everywhere, and reached for the crusts, pulling off the pieces of un-crusted sandwich, and returning them to Riku's plate.

"There. Now can you eat it?"

Riku nodded happily and picked up his sandwich.

Eiri sighed and sat back down, regretting that he had eaten his so quickly. He glanced at the clock. 4:30 p.m. He'd make another one, but then he wouldn't eat dinner, and Shuichi would freak out and whine that he never ate, and then he would go on strike or something idiotic like that, and Eiri would have to eat something like a 10 course meal every day to make the kid happy again, and he would get fat, and then he wouldn't be beautiful anymore, just a creepy fat romance writer. Great.

He shook his head. He really needed to get out more.

As soon as that thought was finished, Riku stood up, collected both plates, and tossed them away. Eiri took that as his cue to put the jar and knife away. Riku handed him a paper towel and pointed to the smear of peanut butter left from the knife, which was quickly wiped away. An across-the-room shot into the wastebasket, and the kitchen was complete. Eiri smirked, feeling way too much pride than the situation called for. He had gotten through one more day, and the kid hadn't died yet! He stretched, and started back to his room. "Thanks for the snack, but I need to get back to writing."

"Um…Yuki-san?"

Eiri turned around at the call of his name, and jumped when two tiny arms wrapped around his middle, held on for a second or two, and released, their owner stepping back a step or two and blushing furiously.

"Thank you for eating with me."

The blonde man blinked, and shook his head, a tiny smile on his face. Then he turned and walked back to his study, feeling stupid for grinning like an idiot because some kid hugged him. Then he shook his head again, and closed the door.

Out in the living room, Riku waited patiently on the couch for Mamma to get home. Any minute now…

The door opened, and Shuichi walked through, dropping his bag, and slipping to his knees to receive the hug Riku ran to give him. Lifting him up, he swung him around and set him on the couch.

"So, what did you and Yuki do today?"

Riku opened his mouth, ready to tell him all the stuff like the sandwich and Yuki's bad 'anners, and the hug…

He closed his mouth and giggled.

"Nothing special."

Shuichi rolled his eyes and stood up. "Hunh."

And they called him the weird one.


End file.
